tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90064714721962755912024-02-19T20:54:42.145-08:00The Heterodox HomosexualQueerness for the rest of usThe Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.comBlogger813125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-64076375541324166872018-06-23T05:42:00.000-07:002018-06-23T05:42:32.415-07:00Someone actually wrote this (obligatory Pride nonsense)In today's <i>New York Times,</i> Joanne Spataro <a href=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/opinion/theres-no-right-way-to-be-queer.html?action=click&contentCollection=opinion&contentPlacement=1&module=stream_unit&pgtype=sectionfront®ion=stream&rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&version=latest>writes</a>,<blockquote>But there is a deeper tension running through this year’s Pride celebrations. Especially in the Trump era, it’s becoming harder for people who don’t present as the “right” kind of queer-identified person to feel welcome. They sense an encroaching “homonormativity,” the idea that there is one acceptable mode — white, male, gay — with everyone else marginalized or silenced.</blockquote>In which alternate universe is that the case, especially with regard to "Especially in the Trump era"? Being the right kind of queer-identified person, at least in my experience, accommodates people of diverse appearances and presentations, as long as they conform to the goodthink, and this has been true at least throughout my adult lifetime.<blockquote>Corporations are cashing in on these identities by selling gay-themed products during Pride Month — often referred to as “rainbow capitalism” — but too often, the rainbow begins and ends with masculine gay men.</blockquote>Again, in which alternate universe? I have a hard time seeing how things like Ikea tote bags are specific to masculine gay men. It does not help that the article is illustrated with photographs of drag queens at Pride.<blockquote>Homonormativity isn’t an issue only on the parade route. The term “masc 4 masc” is increasingly prevalent on dating sites for gay men as a way of prioritizing masculine-presenting people and filtering out more feminine-presenting ones.</blockquote>It's almost as though her knowledge of gay men began and ended with pop-cultural osmosis. Contrary to what we keep reading in the LGBT "news" media, I've never noticed any shortage of gay men interested in twinks or femboys.<blockquote>That compulsion and exclusivity is masked by the perception of diversity within gay identity. “Nowadays, there are just as many plug-and-play identities, like twinks, bears, otters and dykes, and each comes with a hefty price tag if you want to ‘do them correctly,’” Mr. Burford said. These “plug-and-play” identities can make closeted L.G.B.T. people feel isolated and unseen.</blockquote>That can be true, or the bit about one acceptable mode can be true, but not both.<blockquote>“The economics of being out at Pride relies on the old idea that all gay people are rich, and as we know, this isn’t true. It gets really hard when your idea of gay is attached to expensive product placement.”</blockquote>She needs to look at the booths at Pride events. Everything from churches to social services is an expensive product, I guess.<blockquote>The freedom of Pride had become a lead weight for me, my sensible plum-colored Ralph Lauren dress a prison amid the homonormative show of lithe gay men in rainbow paint and butch lesbians in white tank tops.</blockquote>Butch lesbians in white tank tops? Didn't she just say...?The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-34577436109363699632018-02-11T09:27:00.000-08:002018-02-11T09:27:47.479-08:00Someone actually wrote this: Presenting the latest manufactured outrageIn <i>Stand Up,</i> which is apparently a competitor to <i>Everyday Feminism,</i> Steph Farnsworth <a href=https://standupmag.org/2018/02/06/please-lets-not-associate-sapiosexuality-with-queerness/>writes</a> about the word "sapiosexual," which means "a person who finds intelligence sexually attractive or arousing." While I find the word annoying, it seems to unhinge Farnsworth:<blockquote>Labels are good. Forget all of the dismissive things you’ve earned [<i>sic</i>] about them; labels help give people power. The widening names that we have for different identities can make people feel empowered by finally having words to describe themselves. Labels never go too far, except, perhaps, in one case. Sapiosexual is possibly the worst term ever created.</blockquote>This is the one and only bad label. It's so bad, in fact, that it's the worst term ever created, certainly worse than all of the bigoted slurs that people have used throughout history.<blockquote>A sapiosexual is someone who finds intelligence sexually attractive. The whole concept is completely ableist.</blockquote>Any preference for a potential partner is going to be -ist somehow.<blockquote>Everyone can have types, but to build a label around it suggests an element of exclusivity when sapiosexuals face no oppression.</blockquote>You don't get to have any self-description that doesn't get you at least a bronze in the Oppression Olympics.<blockquote>Sapiosexuals don’t need a label. The fact it’s got a sexuality label and therefore is so similar to bisexuality, homosexuality, asexuality, and pansexuality is risking appropriation of the queer community.</blockquote>Stop telling me when to be offended, especially by something that is unlikely to happen.<blockquote>Let’s drop the pretentiousness. Sapiosexuality is the worst label that could have been created.</blockquote>I'll grant that some people who identify as sapiosexual can be insufferably pretentious, but it's still not the worst label that could have been created. By the way, where is the corresponding outrage over people who prefer less intelligent partners?The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-29005872283773470232018-01-23T16:39:00.000-08:002018-01-23T16:39:36.628-08:00Lord of the FliesI have just finished reading <i>Lord of the Flies</i> because progressives often hold it up as a counterweight to <i>Atlas Shrugged,</i> with the added advantage of being an order of magnitude shorter. A plane crash that kills the adults strands a group of preteen British boys on an island, leaving the boys to work out how to govern themselves. The boys' descent into savagery on the island supposedly shows people's need for rules. To me, however, it says more about preteen boys' need for rules.
<p>The book also illustrates an issue that I have yet to see advocates of bigger government address. The boys on the island are left to their own devices to enact and enforce the very rules that they need in order to behave properly and are thus stuck with the <a href=https://www.economist.com/blogs/theinbox/2007/06/vote_for_me_dimwit_june_16th>paradox of democratic statism</a> that I noted earlier elsewhere, namely, that the same people who cannot run their own lives must somehow run one another's. In-universe, the boys can hope for grownups to arrive on the island and make the needed rules, but in the real world, we cannot.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-39669418087927819362017-11-15T18:22:00.000-08:002017-11-15T18:22:17.534-08:00Some thoughts on Trump derangement syndromeAs you may have noticed, I am no fan of Donald Trump. Nonetheless, I think that one reason why so many people succumb to Trump derangement syndrome is the cognitive dissonance. The very idea that Trump could be President can cause them to doubt so many things that, for them, have to be true: that people vote rationally, that <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2017/04/doublethink-about-majority-rule.html>government is self-regulating</a> as a result, and that when a government office acquires power, whoever ends up occupying that office can be trusted to <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2016/11/live-by-political-sword-die-by.html>use that power in the way they want</a>.
<p>Also, many people refuse to say his name. Are we back in an age in which people believed that names had magic powers?The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-46340275020877733542017-10-26T16:20:00.001-07:002017-10-26T16:20:57.329-07:00Book review: FantasylandI have just finished <i>Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History,</i> whose title could use a few more colons. The thesis is that "what’s happening in our country today—this post-factual, 'fake news' moment we’re all living through—is not something new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character."
<p>The author mostly at least goes through the motions of being evenhanded, and he gives the academic left a good shellacking, but he does show biases now and then. For example, he describes the rise of suburbia without mentioning the role of the federal government in promoting either suburban sprawl or suburban racial segregation. Similarly, he discusses the fantasy aspects of new sports stadiums designed to look old and of Disneyfied urban neighborhoods but never even mentions the pervasive fantasy that government financing of such things makes economic sense. Also, some views, particularly on religion, have always been untenable for reasons little better than "because I say so." I find that grating even on subjects on which I otherwise agree with him.
<p>Still, it's true that the post-fact world is nothing new; anyone who has tried to argue with I-feel-it-in-my-heart politically correct people can tell you that. He also says something that I've been <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2007/06/intellectual-unilateral-disarmament.html>saying for ages</a>, namely, that postmodernists and their ilk were useful idiots for creationists and their ilk.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-11918855961030152912017-10-09T18:06:00.000-07:002017-10-10T05:20:54.525-07:00Someone actually wrote this: Gay people and gun controlIn <i>The Advocate,</i> Kevin Hertzog, cofounder of Gays Against Guns, <a href=https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/10/05/gays-against-guns-its-surprising-massacres-dont-happen-more-often>writes</a>,<blockquote>On Sunday in Las Vegas, someone with a stockpile of guns and ammunition set out to inflict the maximum amount of damage on the greatest number of people. His motive is much less important than is the fact that there were very few roadblocks in his way. The gun laws in Nevada are among the most lax in our country. We should not be surprised that this happens so often. We should be surprised that it doesn’t happen more often.</blockquote>Yes, we should be surprised whenever reality departs from the narrative. As for the laxity of Nevada's gun laws, has Mr. Hertzog seen <a href=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/06/zero-correlation-between-state-homicide-rate-and-state-gun-laws/?utm_term=.2bc0598da23a>this</a>?<blockquote>There’s virtually nothing stopping anyone from doing the exact same thing.</blockquote>Yet most people don't. It's almost as though there were something stopping most people from doing the exact same thing; what could that be?<blockquote>Gay people are uniquely qualified to attack government inaction, apathy, and complicity because we’ve seen it before and we know the price of silence.</blockquote>Hey, you big, bad government, we're going to stand up to you by demanding that you take away more of our freedoms. It's not as though gay people had anything to fear from increased government power.<blockquote>Massacres like the one that just happened get the most media attention, but they are not, in fact, the way that most victims of gun violence die. Suicide is responsible for almost two-thirds of gun deaths.</blockquote>Bait and switch much? Suicide (what you do to yourself) and mass murder (what you do to lots of other people) are morally different.<blockquote>We urge you to “come out” as a gun violence prevention advocate. We’ve been bullied into polite silence by the NRA and its trolls for far too long. Many people feel intimidated to argue with those who vehemently advocate for the Second Amendment.</blockquote>In which alternate universe are LGBT people shy about supporting gun control? Also, how dare anyone advocate for a Constitutional right!The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-74834640703118519372017-09-29T16:43:00.001-07:002017-09-29T16:43:55.573-07:00The major parties' heartfelt principles<i>The New York Times</i> <a href=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/us/politics/trump-tax-cuts-deficit-republicans-congress.html>reports</a> that Republicans have abandoned one of their favorite talking points, namely, the deficit:<blockquote>“It’s a great talking point when you have an administration that’s Democrat-led,” said Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of about 150 conservative House members. “It’s a little different now that Republicans have both houses and the administration.”</blockquote>This should surprise no one. The Republican Party is a mystery cult; when I was a College Republican, I did not get too far into it before hearing Maryland's Republican leaders admit that they did not mean what they said about smaller government.
<p>I will not let the Democratic Party off the hook either. I once said to a Maryland Democratic activist that his party's politicians said exactly the opposite things to voters on opposite sides of the state. He not only admitted it but tried to argue that that was a good thing because Team Blue could cover all bases. In short, party prevails over principle.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-40872124665187863432017-08-30T10:54:00.002-07:002017-08-30T14:29:35.197-07:00Someone actually wrote this: We need to nationalise Google, Facebook and Amazon.In <i>The Guardian,</i> Nick Srnicek <a href=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/30/nationalise-google-facebook-amazon-data-monopoly-platform-public-interest>writes</a>,<blockquote>Ello’s rapid rise and fall is symptomatic of our contemporary digital world and the monopoly-style power accruing to the 21st century’s new “platform” companies, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. Their business model lets them siphon off revenues and data at an incredible pace, and consolidate themselves as the new masters of the economy.</blockquote>That's pretty much what people said about AOL, which has not been called a master of the economy in a while.<blockquote>Monday brought another giant leap as Amazon raised the prospect of an international grocery price war by slashing prices on its first day in charge of the organic retailer Whole Foods.</blockquote>No, please, anything but cheaper groceries! The horror! The horror!<blockquote>None of them focuses on making things in the way that traditional companies once did. Instead, Facebook connects users, advertisers, and developers; Uber, riders and drivers; Amazon, buyers and sellers.</blockquote>I'm not sure that the author quite gets how Amazon works.<blockquote>Reaching a critical mass of users is what makes these businesses successful: the more users, the more useful to users – and the more entrenched – they become. Ello’s rapid downfall occurred because it never reached the critical mass of users required to prompt an exodus from Facebook – whose dominance means that even if you’re frustrated by its advertising and tracking of your data, it’s still likely to be your first choice because that’s where everyone is, and that’s the point of a social network.</blockquote>And that's why we all still use Myspace.<blockquote>Facebook is a master at using all sorts of behavioural techniques to foster addictions to its service: how many of us scroll absentmindedly through Facebook, barely aware of it?</blockquote>I don't know; how many people do that?<blockquote>What’s the answer? We’ve only begun to grasp the problem, but in the past, natural monopolies like utilities and railways that enjoy huge economies of scale and serve the common good have been prime candidates for public ownership. The solution to our newfangled monopoly problem lies in this sort of age-old fix, updated for our digital age.</blockquote>Yes, let's have government take over such important facilities of information distribution. Given the importance of U.S. companies to this sector of the economy, "government" to a significant extent means the Trump administration. What could possibly go wrong?<blockquote>It would mean taking back control over the internet and our digital infrastructure, instead of allowing them to be run in the pursuit of profit and power.</blockquote>Nothing says, "We're not doing this in the pursuit of power" like a government takeover.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-6521217519737158962017-06-20T18:18:00.000-07:002017-06-20T18:18:03.514-07:00Trademarks and free speechOn the blog Above the Law, Joe Patrice <a href=http://abovethelaw.com/2017/06/supreme-court-confirms-the-bill-of-rights-is-just-about-making-money-strikes-down-trademark-disparagement-provision/?rf=1>writes</a> about "the path that most defines the Roberts Court: the provisions of the Bill of Rights are for making money." Sure, if you ignore all of the decisions of the Roberts court that don't suggest that.
<p>Patrice points out that "no one was trying to ban any speech here" and continues,<blockquote>Federal trademark protection flows from the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce, and in light of the broad grant of power the Framers gave the government here, it’s entirely reasonable for the government to impose limits on what marks it gives the imprimatur of nationwide recognition, in the interest of regulating the market. This isn’t banning someone from expressing a disparaging view. It’s not even banning someone from making money off a disparaging view. The statute barred the federal government from inserting itself into a potential dispute between someone trying to make money off a racial slur and someone trying to make bootleg products to make money off that same racial slur. And, as already discussed, it doesn’t even stop someone from suing the bootlegger.</blockquote>Such limits stop being "entirely reasonable" when they are based on viewpoint. In fact, a long line of precedent forbids government to impose such viewpoint-based restrictions, even when government was under no Constitutional obligation to provide the service under consideration in the first place.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-14550613223293621762017-06-18T16:46:00.001-07:002017-06-18T16:46:44.191-07:00Someone actually wrote this: Is Pride Still for Queer People like Me?In today's <i>New York Times,</i> Krista Burton <a href=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/opinion/sunday/is-pride-still-for-queer-people-like-me.html?_r=0>writes</a>,<blockquote>Pride was a party, a huge gay party, and I had never been so excited to be invited, or felt so instantly welcome, anywhere.
<p>That’s where Pride succeeds. It gets more inclusive and welcoming every year, and as the queers become less threatening, more straight people come, and more minds are opened to the possibility that we gays might just be regular people, after all. (Albeit with better decorating sense and the sass to pull off chaps that leave little to the imagination.)</blockquote>Apart from the fact that Ms. Burton parrots outdated stereotypes of gay men, what's the problem?<blockquote>Having allies is wonderful, but sometimes I wish they could be allies every other day of the year, and let us have a party as gay and naked and radical and un-family-friendly as we queers might like.</blockquote>Given what she just said, she seems to want to argue with success.<blockquote>Pride is clearly also for corporations who want to milk as much money as possible from a previously ignored demographic. In the past decade or so, companies have scrambled to prove how O.K. they are with L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ folks, and well, it’s embarrassing how transparent the scramble for our money is.</blockquote>Quite unlike those politicians who "evolve" on our issues when politically expedient. Many people want the former to prove their ideological purity, while the latter get participation trophies.<blockquote>We see you, Miller Lite, with your oddly wholesome, rainbow-spattered ads. Where were you before it was in your best financial interest to be accepting of queers?
<p>Where were any of these companies when a single corporation standing up for queer rights would have stood out like a lit “Golden Girls” prayer candle in an endless night of straight missionary sex?</quote></blockquote>Where was Ms. Burton when many businesses were <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/16/opinion/l-tolerance-of-gays-001201.html>leading indicators</a> of our progress even as politicians were so often lagging indicators? Where was she when businesses went to bat for us against homophobic or transphobic state legislatures? And what is it with those stereotypes of gay men that so fascinate her?<blockquote>I hate that white, gay, cis men are the only kind of gays with real activist funding behind them.</blockquote>And I hate that up is down and that the sun rises in the west.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-59648767402867510602017-06-08T17:29:00.000-07:002017-06-08T17:29:32.112-07:00Where the LGBT movement can go right, and where it can go wrongIn today's <i>Washington Post,</i> we <a href=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-polygamy-to-pornography-americans-are-getting-more-permissive/2017/06/07/00722ed4-4ba1-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.8454e0fb8473>read</a>,<blockquote>Since 2001, there has been a clear and, apparently, irreversible, move toward more permissive, or, to use Gallup’s word, “liberal” social norms.
<p>“Libertarian” might be a better term. Gallup documents what can only be called a strong live-and-let-live consensus regarding several practices — birth control, divorce, sex between unmarried adults, gay or lesbian relations, out-of-wedlock child-bearing — that within living memory were either fiercely contested or taboo. </blockquote>The key words are "live-and-let-live consensus." Unfortunately, I see many LGBT people refuse to learn the lesson. Despite the evidence that live-and-let-live is a winning strategy, they want to replace homophobes' form of live-but-not-let-live with their own. We have already seen backlashes from stepping on others' First Amendment rights.
<p>See also <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2014/02/the-perfect-argument-if-we-hadnt.html>The perfect argument, if we hadn't forfeited it</a>The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-34745446246319875342017-05-23T16:17:00.000-07:002017-05-23T16:17:17.376-07:00Libertarian derangement syndromeOne problem that I have encountered in discussing libertarianism is that while some people will hear me out and argue in good faith, my attempts to discuss it provoke libertarian derangement syndrome in others. Such people often respond to any approving or neutral mention of libertarianism with name-calling, appeals to ridicule, straw men, and just about everything else except an attempt to argue in good faith.
<p>For example, once, I had two progressives agreeing with my libertarian views until they learned that those were libertarian views. They then accused me of holding <a href="http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2013/06/the-straw-man-apocalypse-or-how-not-to.html">several views</a> that are not libertarian and <a href="http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2013/06/la-la-la-progressives-cant-hear-you.html">one</a> that is the exact opposite of what libertarians believe. Their working definition of "libertarianism" seemed to be "anything that <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2013/08/some-rules-of-life.html>I don't like</a> and from which someone may make a profit."
<p>Not only would they have failed an <a href="http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/06/the_ideological.html">ideological Turing test</a>, but they also wallowed in willful ignorance. When I tried to explain their mistakes to them, one silently walked away, while the other responded with, in succession, a deer-in-the-headlights look, an attempt to change the subject, and an appeal to ridicule. The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-10366740631494427112017-04-30T06:27:00.001-07:002017-04-30T06:27:06.562-07:00Doublethink about majority ruleRight-thinking people have long said that because markets are not self-regulating, they need regulation by government. When I asked how government is self-regulating, a progressive told me that government is self-regulating because of elections. Apparently, the voting booth is like <a href=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekS3E1SpocksBrain>the Teacher from <i>Star Trek</i></a>.
<p>Now, however, <i>Salon</i> (and I'm citing that fake-news site for the fact that people are saying something, not for the truth of what is being said) <a href=http://www.salon.com/2017/04/26/are-american-voters-actually-this-stupid-a-new-poll-suggests-the-answer-may-be-yes/>tells us</a>,<blockquote>Are tens of millions of Americans really this stupid? If the findings from a new ABC News poll are any indication, then the answer is yes....</blockquote>So where does that leave us?The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-35165145545197526982017-04-27T17:26:00.000-07:002017-04-27T17:26:19.392-07:00Someone actually wrote this: Pride fests and those evil corporationsIn <i>The Advocate,</i> Alex Morash <a href=http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/4/26/pride-fests-too-corporate-danger-being-left-behind>writes</a>,<blockquote>Today our rights are threatened again, and many in the LGBT community are afraid of what is happening to our country. We need a Pride that marches for our community’s struggles; it's time to march, protest, and resist!</blockquote>What concrete suggestion does Morash make?<blockquote>Pride celebrations in most major cities have gotten stale, using the same tired model that focuses on a parade that is filled with big corporate sponsors hawking their wares.</blockquote>Businesses are increasingly willing to accept us, and that's terrible! It's bad when businesses choose to accept us but good when government compels them to, or something.<blockquote>In these times we need Pride to courageously stand up to corporate interests and get back to being a march for our rights.</blockquote>So we should stand up to those who are willing to be our allies? I thought that the point of such a march would be stand up to those who actually threaten our rights.<blockquote>This is at the heart of why the national Pride march is getting so much attention; it’s not speaking to the affluent or to big corporations, it’s speaking to everyday working-class queers</blockquote>So everyday working-class queers don't buy goods or services or otherwise participate in a market economy? That's useful to know.<blockquote>— an audacious act in today’s LGBT community</blockquote>How's the weather on Counter-Earth?<blockquote>When Pride committees allow corporations to feature so prominently, Pride comes off as supporting corporate interests over the needs of our community.</blockquote>False dichotomy is false.<blockquote>Does anyone think the Pride events of today, filled with luxury brands truly speak to the one out of every five LGBT people living below the federal poverty line or, for that matter, to the rest of us who are not wealthy?</blockquote>I've somehow overlooked all of those luxury brands. Are the promotional t-shirts by Brioni, or are the likes of <a href=http://www.capitalpride.org/sponsors/>Hot 99.5 FM, Food Lion, and Coca-Cola</a> now luxury brands?<blockquote>Pride needs to speak for us, and we need Pride to reflect who we really are — diverse, not all affluent, and proud to come in every color of the rainbow.</blockquote>Should Pride reflect an ideologically diverse community in which not everyone buys into trendy anti-capitalism? Also, as the commenters ask, how will Pride get paid for otherwise?
<p>See also <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2010/08/needlessly-alienating-potential-allies.html>Needlessly alienating potential allies</a> and <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2010/06/movement-not-market.html>A movement, not a market?</a>.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-13800347970337635492017-04-21T06:26:00.001-07:002017-04-21T06:26:47.443-07:00New York City's war on tobacco<i>The New York Times</i> is valiantly engaging in investigative journalism, and by "investigative journalism" I mean "parroting whatever those in authority say."
<p><a href=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/nyregion/de-blasio-smoking-new-york-city-tobacco.html>De Blasio Backs Plan to Lift Base Price of Pack of Cigarettes to $13</a>
<blockquote>Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged his support on Wednesday to a series of initiatives to cut tobacco use, proposing to raise the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes in New York City to $13 and vowing to sharply reduce, over time, the number of stores that may sell tobacco products.</blockquote>
What could possibly go wrong? It's not as though anyone ever smuggled cigarettes or as though New York City had good transportation links to any other localities.
<blockquote>In 2002, when Mr. Bloomberg took office, 21.5 percent of adult New Yorkers smoked, according to the Health Department. As Mr. Bloomberg banned smoking in bars and restaurants and set a minimum price for cigarettes, the rate fell to 14 percent by 2012, and it has fluctuated since.</blockquote>
Meanwhile, in the US as a whole in the same period, it <a href=https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/tables/trends/cig_smoking/>fell</a> from 22.5% to 18.1%. I grant that the rate of smoking fell faster in New York City than in the US as a whole, but the fact that it did fall in the US as a whole and the fact that the rate started out lower in New York City suggest that other factors were at work.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-25060602400323846192017-04-08T07:02:00.000-07:002017-04-08T07:02:00.449-07:00Someone actually wrote this: The Federalist on pornographyIn <i>The Federalist,</i> Dustin Murphy <a href=http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/04/12-ways-pornography-just-doesnt-show-enough/>writes</a> a screed against pornography that is larded with the usual proofs by assertion. A few passages stand out, though.
<p>According to Murphy, the antisocial effects of pornography include the following:<blockquote>One of the greatest tragedies of porn’s antisocial effects is that it fuels an anti-child culture. Thinking sex should be open to procreation, or that the two go hand-in-hand, is regarded like VHS tapes: out of style. Some people consider parents with three or more children to be crazy, and children are generally viewed as a burden. Anyone with a large family has probably experienced negative comments in grocery stores or coffee shops.</blockquote>In addition to the false dichotomy, the cause of the anti-child culture, if such a thing exists, is pornography because Murphy says so.
<p>As for whether one person's use of pornography harms others, Murphy argues,<blockquote>Recording sex devoid of love violates a couple’s right to share authentic human love and to experience the whole person, not just private parts, during sex.</blockquote>No, it doesn't. People are still free to do just that. Murphy's argument is just a short stroll from "Freedom is slavery."
<p>He continues that<blockquote>laws ought to promote the common good, which is to perfect the community.</blockquote>In addition to being exactly the sort of collectivist reasoning that conservatives at least used to oppose when liberals used it, that argument presupposes that perfecting the community is possible. It is odd that someone who elsewhere expresses a belief in God argues that secular government can perfect the community. Besides, I am not sure that I should want to live in Murphy's perfect community.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-50160072502150093612017-03-16T17:16:00.000-07:002017-03-16T17:16:24.025-07:00Planning on writing a gay novel? (expanded version)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are planning on writing a gay novel, take this simple quiz to see whether you should proceed.</span><br />
<ol style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
characters live beyond-fabulous lives in Manhattan, Fire Island, or both
with no discernible way to pay? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
expose the reader to intricate details about the characters’ partying and
sex lives but never tell the reader what they do for a living? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you do
tell the reader what they do for a living, will it be limited to
entry-level jobs, despite the characters' ages?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about
the military or the police, unless relevant to the plot?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about
sex work?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
just make your characters independently wealthy?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
make a character a student but never say what his major is or what he
plans to do with it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will a plot
point be set in a location that you have never visited and cannot be
bothered to research? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you dismiss
out of hand the need to research any location that is not New York City,
San Francisco, or a part of Los Angeles County?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the protagonist
be impossibly gorgeous and universally desired? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will he be a
Mary-Sue version of you? </span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
book be centered on his inner life, even though he doesn’t have one? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will he
search for true love, find it, and toss it away without motivation? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will he
basically live his entire life without motivation, like some supremely
fabulous houseplant? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will he see
everything, do most of it, and never learn from his experiences?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will he bewail a fate that is a foreseeable consequence of the way he chooses to live his life?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will he pine for an unattainable man whom he attains at the end?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will his moral code effectively be "It's okay when I do it"?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the reader know what he looks like because he looks at himself in the mirror and describes himself in his mind?</span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
provide another major character simply as a foil for the protagonist’s fabulousness?
<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the protagonist
and his love interest be the most physically attractive men in every room?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
tell the reader that they have buff bodies but not mention that they expend any
effort to maintain them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will they
be 100% sexually compatible upon meeting and remain so over time?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
protagonist’s partying and sex life be the only reasons for the reader to
care what happens to him?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will your
characters have no hobbies or interests apart from partying, sex, and
either being gorgeous or admiring gorgeous men?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will one of
the characters be a magical “other” (person of color, lesbian, Jew, gender-nonconforming person, what
have you) who sets the white, cis, male, nominally Christian protagonist
on the right path?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will one of
the characters be a designated villain, even though he never does anything
particularly bad?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about a
designated hero, even though he never does anything particularly good or
behaves no better than the villain?</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p>Will you designate heroes and villains through physical attractiveness, pen<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is siz<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, o<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">r, heaven help you, both?</span></span></span></span></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will one of
the characters be a devout Catholic who later commits apostasy and becomes
the party boy to end all party boys? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about a
crazy right-winger who turns out to be gay? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about a
politically correct puritan who turns out to be a whore? </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about someone with a trendy name that is unlikely given when and where he was born?</span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about a
lesbian who coaches a sports team or teaches physical education or women’s
studies?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would it
surprise you to learn that a lesbian can teach physics?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would it
surprise you to learn that a gay man can teach anything?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If one of the characters starts out devoutly religious and later leaves his faith, you will simply state that he has done so instead of showing us his thought processes as he does so?</span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you take
it for granted that all gay men are attracted to the same physical type?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If one character
is a gay man who is attracted to a different physical type from everyone
else, will you use his attraction to that different physical type for comic
relief?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you only
think you know what anal sex is like the first few times? Yes, Annie
Proulx, you have to answer this one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will at
least one character be a gay man based on stereotypes of heterosexual
women?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about a
heterosexual woman based on stereotypes of gay men?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will your
novel read like a novelization of a Hallmark Channel movie, except that
the love interests are both male and that there is at least one sex scene?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you
think that you can get away with converting someone else’s heterosexual
novel into your gay novel just by changing the first name and pronouns of
one of the love interests?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are
not a gay man, do you refuse to care whether gay men will regard your
novel as realistic portrayals of gay male life?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are
not a gay man, do you think that you have a special insight into the gay
male experience that gay men need to hear and that you are, for whatever
reason, the one to share that insight with them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would your
novel make more sense if one of the gay male characters were rewritten as
a heterosexual woman who had magically acquired a penis and wanted to try
it on a man?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will part
of the plot or exposition center on a religion with which you are familiar
solely through pop-cultural osmosis and whose doctrines and practices you
cannot be bothered to research? Yes, Christianity and its denominations
count. <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
characters engage in dialog that no one would say in real life, just so
that you can make a point? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will
something happen that would never happen in real life, just so that you
can make a point?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
make a point simply by having the protagonist state it as a self-evident
truth?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about
by having the protagonist attack straw-man counterarguments?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about
by appealing to ridicule?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
protagonist often get into political or cultural arguments and never lose?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
protagonist criticize a viewpoint that you consider to be wrong or
offensive and, in the process, inadvertently defend an even worse
viewpoint?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the protagonist makes your point for you, will the other characters immediately fall into line, as though you novel were a Chick tract?</span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you
writing your novel to make a point for which the only evidence will be
your novel?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will your
novel make a point that will make you a darling of anti-gay social
conservatives?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will
everyone have HIV? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alternatively,
will your novel be set in a parallel universe in which, even though it is
well after 1981, no one has ever heard of HIV? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about a
parallel universe in which no one has ever heard of any STI other than
HIV?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
protagonist’s HIV status be the only reason for the reader to care what
happens to him?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
include gratuitous praise of lesbians based on comparing gay men as they live in the real world to lesbians as they exist only in theory?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you
refuse to care how human nature works?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
willfully rewrite human nature just to make a point?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just
because one letter in the LGBTQUIMOUSE+++ alphabet soup applies to you, do
you consider yourself qualified to be a spokesperson for everyone in the
soup?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
have characters of multiple races, ethnicities, religions, or
socioeconomic categories just as tokens?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
have characters of multiple races, ethnicities, religions, or
socioeconomic categories who speak and behave in stereotyped ways rather
than being fully fleshed-out characters?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
have characters of multiple races, ethnicities, religions, or
socioeconomic categories who never express differing perspectives or
opinions?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
have an important character who is transgender but not bother to find out
what transitioning entails?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Do you
believe that a person’s identity categories tell everything there is to
know about that person, including that person’s speech patterns and that
person’s opinions on religion and politics?</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you
believe that you have something new to say solely because of the
intersection of your identity categories?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will your
characters’ religions be solely identity categories that have nothing to
do with what they believe or practice?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
use your characters’ religions as a way to designate heroes and villains?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
use your characters’ kinks for that purpose?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will you
use a character’s kink for comic relief?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does “Tell;
don’t show” make sense to you? <o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you writing
your novel just to capitalize on the success of a popular novel by someone
else or a popular TV series?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the
ending make no sense in the context of the rest of the novel?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will your
novel make just as much sense if the dog eats fifty pages?<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How to score: If you answered "yes" to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">any</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of the above questions, I suggest that you not write your novel.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strike>Shamelessly ripped off from</strike> Inspired by <a href="http://www.rinkworks.com/fnovel/">The Fantasy Novelist's Exam.</a></span><br />
<ol style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
</ol>
The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-10302730059647418442017-02-12T16:55:00.001-08:002017-02-12T16:55:38.200-08:00LGBT rights as "the most conservative of causes"In discussing Caitlyn Jenner's mission, Jennifer Finney Boylan <a href=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/opinion/sunday/caitlyn-jenners-mission.html?_r=0>writes</a>,<blockquote>As I listened, I wondered whether L.G.B.T. rights really ought not to be the most conservative of causes. Above all else we want to be left alone, without interference, to live our lives with truth and grace. What could be more conservative than that?
<p>And yet the modern Republican Party seems to have no problem interfering with people’s privacy when it comes to sexuality and gender identity. From abortion rights to opposition to marriage equality, the Republicans have advocated more government intrusion into private lives, not less.</blockquote>Sexuality and gender identity are not the only issues on which the modern Republican Party seems to have no problem with bigger and more intrusive government, as we are seeing now with Donald Trump and as we saw with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Also, many LGBT activists take stances opposed to the right of <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2015/02/nice-promises-if-you-keep-them.html>others</a> (<a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2014/08/my-comment-got-printed-in-reason.html>or even of gay men</a>) to be left alone, without interference, to live their lives with truth and grace (if I understand what she means by that term).
<p>Ironically, both movements have roots in traditions of at least paying lip service to what Bolyan calls "the most conservative of causes." The Stonewall riots, after all, were hardly pro-government. If both sides took that cause more seriously and got over the notion that <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2011/07/great-big-non-zero-sum-game-of-life.html?m=1>freedom is a zero-sum game</a>, they would have a much easier time realizing both their own and each other's right to be left alone.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-21067634711236686772017-01-03T19:00:00.000-08:002017-01-03T19:00:37.289-08:00The post-fact societyIt's now fashionable to say that we now live in a post-fact society led by Donald Trump. However, the post-fact society has been developing for a long time and is not attributable only to the right.
<p>Right-wingers did not give us political correctness, although they now <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2016/03/donald-trump-political-correctness-for.html>defer to no one</a> in being PC when being PC suits them, nor did they give us the new age or postmodernism. Nor do they have a monopoly on the "This is how it makes me feel as a member of such-and-such identity category" non-argument, which someone actually used on me after I had cited epidemiological data.
<p>See also <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2007/06/intellectual-unilateral-disarmament.html>Intellectual Unilateral Disarmament</a>.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-80949993739506463792016-12-27T18:51:00.000-08:002016-12-27T18:51:18.349-08:00Diversity versus viewpoint diversityOne of the stated purposes of diversity at least used to be to let people of different viewpoints learn from one another. However, the way in which diversity so often works out in practice has led to the use of "diversity of everything but viewpoint" and variations thereon as a punchline.
<p>Now, the right-thinking people have responded by memory-holing that stated reason. Jim Downs <a href=http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/11/17/lgbt-identity-trumps-america>writes</a>,<blockquote>Words have a history. Their meanings develop at a particular time in response to specific questions and debates. “Diversity,” for example, emerged as a term that the left adopted in order to advance the goals of yet another historically laced term, “multiculturalism,” which referred to efforts to value the experiences of marginalized and oppressed peoples. That so-called gay Republicans can co-opt that term for their conflicted plight is an abomination. Gay Republicans, by and large, are not oppressed, nor do they suffer from the lack the financial capital or social status that would qualify them as marginalized. Yet they use the term with zero historical consciousness.</blockquote>Somebody is showing zero historical consciousness.
<p>Zack Ford <a href=https://twitter.com/ZackFord/status/811947083657859072>puts it more succinctly</a> when he says, "Ideas are not identities." While he applies that statement against some particularly unappetizing ideas, his blanket statement both belies the above-noted stated reason for diversity and places the emphasis squarely on identity politics. It also does not explain why diversity cannot cover both.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-36721037541305417562016-11-14T18:15:00.002-08:002016-11-14T18:15:55.030-08:00Live by the political sword, die by the political sword (3)<i>The New York Times</i> <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/us/politics/harsher-security-tactics-obama-left-door-ajar-and-donald-trump-is-knocking.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0>reports</a> that Obama has left the door open to strong security tactics by Trump:<blockquote>Over and over, Mr. Obama has imposed limits on his use of such powers but has not closed the door on them — a flexible approach <b><i>premised on the idea that he and his successors could be trusted to use them prudently</i></b>. Mr. Trump can now sweep away those limits and open the throttle on policies that Mr. Obama endorsed as lawful and legitimate for sparing use, like targeted killings in drone strikes and the use of indefinite detention and military tribunals for terrorism suspects. [emphasis added]</blockquote>Whether you think that Obama or Trump can be trusted to use such powers more prudently, the emphasized part shows a problem that I have noted before <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2016/02/live-by-political-sword-die-by.html>here</a> and <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2016/05/live-by-political-sword-die-by.html>here</a>. Namely, just because those who are in political power now agree with you, you should not assume that those who agree with you will always hold political power. If you want to trust government with power that you do not want your worst political enemies to exercise, remember that it's a safe bet that your worst political enemies will eventually get to exercise that power. I have heard the response that we should just keep those enemies from ever gaining power, but life does not work that way.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-4891141832253731252016-11-03T05:47:00.000-07:002016-11-03T05:47:08.326-07:00Someone actually said this: Republicans, cities, and small governmentIn today's <i>New York Times,</i> we <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/upshot/why-republicans-dont-even-try-to-win-cities-anymore.html?_r=0>read</a> why Republicans no longer compete in America's big cities and how they could do so:<blockquote>“If you compete in cities, you don’t have to win in them,” said Thomas Ogorzalek, a political scientist at Northwestern. “If you go 70-30 in Chicago, instead of 90-10 like Trump is going to do, you can win Illinois. That’s not a bad strategy.”
<p>Mr. Goldsmith, the former Republican mayor of Indianapolis, says the idea isn’t far-fetched. Picture a Republican who runs on effective government instead of against government: a Michael Bloomberg type minus the nanny-state laws. Or a school-choice advocate, but not a culture warrior. Or someone who talks about crime without caricaturing the communities that confront the worst of it.</blockquote>Which Republicans are running against government? When last I checked, Donald Trump was <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/us/politics/trump-clinton-infrastructure.html>not doing so</a>.
<p>Also, how would the hypothetical Republicans be running "on effective government instead of against government"? A Republican who did not follow Bloomberg on nanny-state laws, the socially conservative take on the culture wars, or law-and-order conservatism would be running against government on those issues, or at least against increased government. It seems that those hypothetical Republicans would run "on effective government instead of against government" by jettisoning some of the GOP's big-government excesses.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-78660562364928547272016-10-18T06:06:00.000-07:002016-10-18T06:06:19.286-07:00Peter Thiel is no true gay Scotsman.A while back, I <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2011/01/true-scotsman-party-of-zero-your-table.html>wrote</a> about the <a href=https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/no-true-scotsman>no-true-Scotsman fallacy</a> and its use to argue away dissent in the LGBT community:<blockquote>Orthodox queer people also use [the fallacy] to dismiss any viewpoint diversity within the LGBT ranks. People have answered my disagreement with the party line by saying, "Yeah, but you're not really gay."</blockquote> Now, in <i>The Advocate,</i> Jim Downs writes,<blockquote>Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire who made news this summer for endorsing Donald Trump at the Republican convention, is a man who has sex with other men. But is he gay?
<p>* * *
<p>By the logic of gay liberation, Thiel is an example of a man who has sex with other men, but not a gay man. Because he does not embrace the struggle of people to embrace their distinctive identity.
<p>* * *
<p>The gay liberation movement has left us a powerful legacy, and protecting that legacy requires understanding the meaning of the term "gay" and not using it simply as a synonym for same-sex desire and intimacy.</blockquote>Regardless of one's views on Thiel's politics, it remains that case that last paragraph, Downs effectively admits to pulling a no-true-Scotsman on Thiel. The good news is that even on a site like <i>The Advocate,</i> the commentariat is overwhelmingly calling shenanigans on Downs's reasoning.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-85255258007591941192016-09-08T18:40:00.001-07:002016-09-08T18:40:11.620-07:00The rule of blameThe rule of blame: All of the credit goes to our side; all of the blame goes to someone else.
<p>Corollaries:
<p>1. If one politician of the other party has any role in a matter, no matter how minor, everything automatically becomes that other party's fault. Perhaps we should call this one <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2016/08/people-actually-say-this-larry-hogan.html>Hogan's law</a>.
<p>2. If a profit-making entity has any role in a matter, no matter how minor or how <a href=https://twitter.com/drwhom/status/646114984989208579>rent-seeking</a>, everything automatically becomes the fault of free markets.
<p>3. If by following this rule, you <a href=https://twitter.com/drwhom/status/678727728246452225>contradict yourself</a>, just remember the <a href=http://blog.heterodoxhomosexual.com/2013/08/some-rules-of-life.html>power of doublethink</a>The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9006471472196275591.post-84526594346378850382016-08-31T17:46:00.000-07:002016-08-31T17:46:20.711-07:00Schrödinger's Gay ManSchrödinger's gay man is extremely picky about whom he's attracted to and simultaneously is willing to sleep with whatever moves.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man wouldn't be caught dead in jeans and a T-shirt and simultaneously makes that his uniform.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man disdains physical activity and simultaneously spends all of his free time working out.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man imposes on the rest of us the culture that he has developed (and no, you may not ask how he does so) and simultaneously has developed no culture of his own.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man cannot be monogamous to save his life and simultaneously imposes heteronormative standards of monogamy on the queer community.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man is attracted only to hypermasculine men and simultaneously is attracted only to ephebic, unmasculine twinks.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man uncritically latches onto any big-government leftist idea and simultaneously limits his interest in politics to what will protect his investment portfolio.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man shirks his duty to become involved in the LGBT movement and simultaneously has completely coopted the LGBT movement.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man shirked his duty to push for marriage equality, instead leaving it up to lesbians, and simultaneously pushed marriage equality on lesbians, who were too enlightened to want it.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man lives down to the stereotypes, thus proving how morally deficient he is, and simultaneously doesn't live down to the stereotypes, thus proving how self-loathing he is.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man is part of the economic elite and is simultaneously part of the net-tax-consuming economic underclass.
<p>Schrödinger's gay man wants nothing to do with sports and simultaneously thinks of nothing else.
<p>Whatever position you take on the controversy between radical feminists and the transgender community, Schrödinger's gay man takes the exact opposite position. It therefore makes perfect sense that both sides blame each other on Schrödinger's gay man.The Heterodox Homosexualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00857478402897833464noreply@blogger.com0